Andy Burnham’s growing stature has fuelled hopes of a Labour revival – but ALAN SIMPSON warns that Britain’s crisis runs far deeper than just its leadership and traces its roots to decades of financialised capitalism
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What is false consciousness?
The MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY takes a look at a concept key to understanding how ruling-class ideology becomes the ‘common sense’ of ordinary people
Editor BEN CHACKO looks at the invaluable contribution the paper makes, and the headwinds it has to struggle against to get by, following the Morning Star’s 80th AGM this month
Recent violence in Belfast was not spontaneous — it was built on years of failure and political neglect, argues STIOFAN O NUALLAIN
The nationalisation move to Great British Railways (GBR) must be about more than just changing the livery, writes MARYAM ESLAMDOUST
Activists will urge MPs to protect the five-year settlement route and cut visa costs, warning reforms risk deepening inequality and labour shortages, says HARSEV BAINS
ANSELM ELDERGILL examines the issues of liberty, safety and risk in relation to people receiving psychiatric treatment
FALSE consciousness is a term used to describe the way in which exploited, oppressed or disadvantaged groups in society accept, assimilate and indeed actively defend or promote ideas which ultimately act against their own interests.
It can apply to individuals, to the working class as a whole, or to sections of it. It is closely related to the idea of hegemony (see Q&A 82) and to Marxist concepts of alienation, reification and fetishism (see Q&A 51).
“False consciousness” often manifests itself as so-called “common sense”. Examples include the notion that capitalism, “private enterprise”, profit, “the market” is simply how things are. That those who have power or earn more do so because they are brighter or work harder than the rest of us; that differences in opportunity or in the social position of men and women are natural, determined by their genes; that the status quo is simply just “the way the world works” and can’t be changed.
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